April 30, 2010

I Want To DisBELIEVE

A plan by Senate Democratic leaders to reform the nation’s immigration
laws ran into strong opposition from civil liberties defenders before
lawmakers even unveiled it Thursday.

Democratic leaders have proposed requiring every worker in the nation to
carry a national identification card with biometric information, such
as a fingerprint, within the next six years, according to a draft of the
measure.

...The national ID program would be titled the Believe System, an acronym
for Biometric Enrollment, Locally stored Information and Electronic
Verification of Employment.

It would require all workers across the nation to carry a card with a
digital encryption key that would have to match work authorization
databases.

Work authorization data bases? The ACLU squawked, but let's cut right to the comedy:

But Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), who has worked on the
proposal and helped unveil it at a press conference Thursday, predicted
the public has become more comfortable with the idea of a national
identification card.

“The biometric identification card is a critical element here,” Durbin
said. “For a long time it was resisted by many groups, but now we live
in a world where we take off our shoes at the airport and pull out our
identification.

“People understand that in this vulnerable world, we have to be able to
present identification,” Durbin added. “We want it to be reliable, and I
think that’s going to help us in this debate on immigration.”

We need national ID cards or the terrorist win? I deplore this fear-mongering, just as I know earnest libs deplored the fear-mongering of the Bush era.

But reflect with me - forcing passengers to remove their shoes prior to boarding a flight may deter some aspiring shoe bomber, and I think there is a strong societal consensus that having airplanes fall out of the sky unexpectedly is a bad thing.

But requiring a person to show an ID card before serving coffee at a local deli prevents what - bad coffee? Forcing a lawn care service to ID their workers prevents what - crabgrass? I'll take my chances ("Danger" is my middle name...).

Somewhat more seriously (I am making an effort here), the complaint in Arizona that sparked their controversial new law is that they are being overrun with illegal drug smugglers, illegal human smugglers, and illegal workers. If, I say IF Durbin's new ID card was effective and IF small, off-the-book employers that are currently ignoring Social Security requirements and other work-related rules actually played along, we would still have done nothing to deter illegal drug smugglers. Or does Durbin think the drug cartels will be applying for ID cards for their workers and enrolling them in the new health exchanges?

Terrorists are physically dangerous. Drug smugglers are physically dangerous. Most illegal workers are only dangerous to the wages of the Americans they might be displacing. Let's not muddle the dangers here.

But it was just 2 days ago that every left-wing talking head in the Country was saying "your papers, please" was unAmerican. Something to do with some new law in Arizona, I seem to recall... "Your card, please" is OK, though, in all 50 states? More proof that I'm not smart enough to be a leftist.

I'm for a national ID card. Getting false ID in the US is currently trivial. If, God forbid, we ever develop a serious domestic terrorist problem such a card could be invaluable for preventing as well as for tracking. I would extend the requirement, in fact, to require anyone entering the country to get some form of biometric ID. For security purposes we need to know who enters the country and if we're at all serious about enforcing immigration laws we need to know who's here now--we currently have something like 12 millions illegals here.

I yield to no one in my contempt for Dick Durbin, but this:

But requiring a person to show an ID card before serving coffee at a local deli prevents what - bad coffee? Forcing a lawn care service to ID their workers prevents what - crabgrass?

is not serious argumentation on a serious subject. A serious argument would ask: what would such a card be designed to accomplish and what is the likelihood that it would accomplish that purpose?

Nor is this a serious argument:

Most illegal workers are only dangerous to the wages of the Americans they might be displacing.

Is that an argument to throw open our borders? Is displacement of Americans not a serious problem? If they are serious I fail to see how to begin addressing the problem is we don't identify who is actually in this country and which of those shouldn't be.

The Dems can hardly claim the AZ law is a return to the Third Reich because it requires LAWBREAKING people to establish their nationality while requiring non lawbreakers to regularly carry cards establishing their nationality, can they?

This was considered once before when it was proposed by Lawrence Silverman (Rep) and it was noted that any such ID can be easily forged BTW.

It's my understanding that there will be two forms of cards distributed under the proposed law:

(1) a credit-card sized item embedded with
-an lcd screen with a digital picture of the cardholder (with age progression software to ensure the picture is never out of date)
-a wifi signal to keep the card continuously updated with a realtime inventory of all financial transactions entered by the cardholder
-a gps signal to allow continuous tracking of all cardholders
-as an anti-forgery measure, a low-powered receiver that detects a unique radio signal from a nanotechnology device implanted in the cardholdren's genitals

(2) an index card with the word "Democrat" written on it

Everybody will have to choose one.

Police and employers must be prepared to satisfy any requests for an index card, a pen, and how to spell "Democrat".

Harper: No, that’s not all. It would subject every employment decision to the approval of the federal government. It would make surveillance of law-abiding citizens easier. It would allow government control of access to health care, and to gun ownership. It would cost $100+ billion dollars. It would promote bribery and corruption at the Social Security Administration. It would promote sophisticated biometric identity fraud. How long should I go on?

"A serious argument would ask: what would such a card be designed to accomplish and what is the likelihood that it would accomplish that purpose?"

TM clearly needs to take up bolding in order to make the difference between "cutting straight to the comedy" and "somewhat more seriously," more obvious to the casual reader.

A serious argument would also ask how quickly such a card could be abused, by both counterfeiters and by Big Brother government. When you, yourself, have already upped that ante by orders of magnitude with your endorsement of prevention and tracking, it's you who are ignoring the most serious question.

It's true -the absence of a national ID card is so untidy as opposed to having one and embedding chips and otherwise tracking lawful citizens (illegals can always forge). OTOH a friend survived WWII because his father chose to remain in the untidy part of Romania which was not under the efficient hand of the Hungarians.

Give me confusion and incompetence any old time in the face of power hungry pols.

This goes into more detail, in the LUN, but you're right, how are you going to make sure
that the cards are not falsified, and there is a level of cognitive dissonance which is mindboggling with Durbin

Threadkiller--I have real questions about that which I have already expressed.

I think there needs to be some clarification.
At the moment I think those disputing the argument that it's a scam are more persuasive to me, in large part because I am willing to rely on the good sense and intelligence of Cantor who voted for the bill.

On the subject of ambiguity (raised in my earlier post), kudos to Arizona's Governor and Legislature. While confabulation is the left's best friend, Arizona separated legitimate concerns from all the racist chaff and immediately began to incorporate clarifying language in the text of their enforcement bill, per Byron York. Those speedy correctives speak directly to the Legislators' intentions impugned by their detractors.

I suspect this uproar may not ultimately work to Democrats advantage. Not only is it focusing attention on enforcement issues which have been systematically ignored, there is a remarkable, salutary, development in the public discourse here which has gone largely unnoticed. At long last, the practical issues of security have been dramatically severed from the ideological issues of amnesty.

It may prove difficult, indeed, to put that political Humpty Dumpty back together again. As Jim O'Sullivan's comment suggests, it's hard to think of a better way to defuse, if not derail, the nazi narrative than by choosing this exquisite moment to promote a national biometric I.D. While Democrats were certain to misrepresent provisions of the Arizona bill -- and ignore the remedial addenda -- things get pretty dicey when their own potential Majority Leader seems to be doing Arizona one better.

Wasn't it not so long ago that the AP ran a story about how, when illegal immigrants are caught, they're taken to a federal processing center where they're released with a order to appear in court at a certain time?

After which they simply go on the run again.

Now tell me how this National ID card is going to solve the problem when the feddies can't be arsed to enforce the law they have now.

Now tell me how this National ID card is going to solve the problem when the feddies can't be arsed to enforce the law they have now.

The same way massive financial regulation is going to solve the problems there when they haven't been able to enforce what they have on the books already (see Madoff, Bernard; Stanford, Allen). Also the same way a massive takeover of medical insurance is going to solve the problems when they haven't managed to solve the problems of Medicare and Medicaid. Got it?

p.s. I like the word "arsed", though I have no idea what it was supposed to be.

(AP) The son of a Democratic Tennessee lawmaker was convicted Friday on two charges in the hacking of Sarah Palin's e-mail account while she campaigned on the Republican presidential ticket in 2008.

The federal court jury reached its verdict against David Kernell, 22, after four days of deliberation. He was found guilty of obstruction of justice and unauthorized access to a computer, but was acquitted on a charge of wire fraud.

The jury deadlocked on a charge of identify theft. Prosecutors reserve the right to have a new trial on that charge. The charge of obstructing an investigation carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence and unauthorized access to a computer is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum one-year sentence.

never mind that this 70% Christian nation might object to what is essentially more forward movement toward a literal "mark of the Beast" - no rules or regulations work unless they are enforced. Hence, Arizona's new ENFORCEMENT of LAWS law.

They say you get the government you deserve, but I swear I don't deserve this government.

Sobel: Remember how I wrote earlier that Tiger was taking his time over every shot? Not anymore. Found the fairway bunker on 15, walked in, slapped at it right away and just kept on walking down the fairway. He's about 200 yards past Angel Cabrera and Stewart Cink right now as they wait to play their second shots. Classless move. He deserves to be called out for this, so I'll say it. Can't do that, no matter how frustrated you are.

OT, but it seems the news that the TARP Inspector General is preparing charges (civil or criminal tbd) against the New York Fed, and by extension, Treasury Secretary Tim Geither seems to have fallen under the radar of the MSM. I hope I linked it properly. I also blogged it.

If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent MSM outlet describing what Americansa U.S. Senatorhad doneproposed to do to prisoners in their controlAmerican Citizens, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action proposal of AmericansDick Durbin (Statist - Illinois) in the treatment of their prisonersU.S. Citizens.
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How about instead of a national ID card we simply allow the states to verify citizenship in order to get a driver's license? No citizenship? No license. Solves two problems at once.

It would not surprise me at all to read a report Monday that the TARP Inspector General has resigned to spend more time with his family.
Or he could end up like the guy in this American Thinker Article

"In a disturbing case of politically motivated retaliation, prominent Beverly Hills attorney Dr. Richard Fine has been incarcerated in coercive solitary confinement for close to fourteen months at the Los Angeles County Men's Jail"

Apparently no lawyer will touch his case, but we have thousand of leftist lawyers willing to work for the terrorists at Guantanamo.

"Yet the jail time actually stems from Dr. Fine's exposure of widespread judicial and government corruption after Dr. Fine argued in court that Yaffe received illegal payments from Los Angeles County, a party to the case."

Senator Dick Bar Al Durbin (D) Al Qaeda, was squealing a couple of years back that the guards at Gitmo were "Nazis" "storm troopers" et al, and now the sumbitch wants us all to carry a National I.D. card? Say it ain't so Joe!

thank you, Doc. Am computer illiterate. My blog is at its usual LUN....I think this may go deep. Turbo Tax Timmy has been playing fast and loose using the People's money with his Wlal Street cronies.

It simply flabbergasts me that nary a word is said when the Democrats are demonizing Wall Street when they have taken zero responsibility in DC and have been at the center of the scandal on Wall Street itself (Corzine, etc).

They have more Wall Street dollar bills stuck in their G Strings than a San Diego stripper when the fleet's in.

I think we are dealing with an entirely different animal today. This administration seems to have everyone petrified to say anything. I bet every skeleton in every closet is kept in a neat little filing cabinet.

The media knows if they say a bad thing they will be locked out. Note no calls for a press conference.

The right really needs its own journolist to coodinate the message. How sick is that?

This is totally a personal off topic post...LUN is a math team recruitment video that my son, Nathan, made with other team members. It is from awhile ago but I just found it again on you tube. He is the "math athlete".

While Al Sharpton, et al, are whining and promoting civil disobedience about the AZ immigration enforcement law, a Pinal County deputy sheriff was shot by a suspected illegal at 4:30PM AZ time this afternoon.

I'm old. I grew up in West Central Illinois, Dick Durbin's Congressional District. When he was first elected to Congress, he was a conservative, pro-life, pro-gun Christian. It's no wonder everything he says is so convoluted. So is he.

Like a war zone out there Bill. I don't think other Americans realize the numbers of illegals coming North. About a quarter mile off to the side of Hwy 77 in Texas is a wide beaten trail lined with milk carton water jugs/trash/camp spots. The check points are on Hwy 77, so the illegals just walk parallel to the Hwy under the electrical lines.

We have never been serious about stopping illegals that I have seen. It is almost comical when I read articles "300 illegals discovered at packing plant"...I think, "Big deal".
Well, Arizona is leading the way...we'll see what happens.

OT, but I thought some of you might like to see the chummy relationship between MoDo and Rahm tonight at a NYorker Party.

Palsy-Walsy

(Note: Obama and his wife went to the Grove Park Inn for a get away right after the oil rig exploded. Question: Shouldn't Obama and Michelle skip WH Corresp's Dinner & head to the disaster area like asap? Twitter is all a twitter asking that question.)

What is it been eight days, since he finally moved on the issue, after dispatching the swat teams to the rigs, no reason to waste a crisis. One wonders if all the navelgazers on
the Arizona law will have second thoughts on what they have encouraged, rhetorical question
I know.

The deputy was helicoptered out. He was sort of under his own power so that's good news. Still searching for 5 illegals with 2 long guns. Local newsswitched from this to whining pissant boycotters. So f'ing small and petty.

Deputy was apparently investigating some bales of marijuana in the desert when he was shot.

Thanks for links Ann and Janet. Watching some local coverage also.

Somehow I bet the local news chopper coming under fire doesn't make the "news". Will be difficult to reconcile that with the meme they need to forge from this. Let's see, if Brewer hadn't sign the law, illegals could have just happily moved their contraband north. Forget that it doesn't take effect for several months.

I don't know what the race baiters, protesters, Sharptons, Shakira, Linda Rondstadt, etc are going to think after this, but I am white hot pissed. I have worked with deputy sheriffs and other LEO's all over the state. Pinal County is the corridor I mentioned the other night where they have to pull search teams at night because the illegals own the night.

I know it's like tumbleweeds in the desert for these people. It's like the folks who
complained about a particular aggressive undercover narcotics unit, down here, had it disbanded, and then complained about the escalation in violence, and why the cops didn't get more involved

Well, the Administration is hot pedaling to show they are doing something about the border, the shots at the helicopter should get Az Gov to DEMAND the US send troops down there to clean up that corridor.

In 1789 George Washington took office in New York as the first president of the United States.
In 1803 the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for 60 million francs, the equivalent of about $15 million.
In 1812 Louisiana became the 18th state of the Union.
In 1900 engineer John Luther "Casey" Jones of the Illinois Central Railroad died in a wreck near Vaughan, MS, after staying at the controls in an effort to save the passengers of the Cannonball Express.
In 1933 singer/songwriter Willie Nelson was born in Abbott, Texas.
In 1945 as Russian troops approached his Berlin bunker, Adolf Hitler committed suicide along with his wife of one day, Eva Braun; also on that day, Arthur Godfrey Time made its debut on the CBS radio network.
In 1970 President Nixon announced the United States was sending troops into Cambodia.
In 1973 President Nixon announced the resignations of top aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, along with Attorney General Richard G. Kleindienst and White House counsel John Dean.
In 1975 the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to Communist forces; the Vietnam War formally ended with the unconditional surrender of South Vietnamese president Duong Van Minh.
In 1983 blues legend Muddy Waters died in Westmont, IL, at age 68.

It's like the folks who
complained about a particular aggressive undercover narcotics unit, down here, had it disbanded, and then complained about the escalation in violence, and why the cops didn't get more involved
That is so true of the left, over and over, nathan hale.

Get rid of any vestige of our Judeo-Christian heritage and then write articles on cheating, crime, and fights in schools.
Encourage a "if it feels good, do it" mentality and write articles on AIDS deaths, STDs, and out of wedlock births.
Mock traditional marriage and then write articles on celebrities that cheat on their spouse.